1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for vector machine control. More specifically, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for vector machine control employing a new technique of machine tool control in performing electrical discharge machining (EDM).
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, machining has been accomplished by an operator who empirically moves a workpiece-carrying work-table transversely of an electrode. In such a conventional approach, machining largely depends upon the operator's dexterity, and such a technique is unfit for achieving high precision machining. Another defect of the conventional approach is that it is not efficient for providing complicated work patterns, or at least does not achieve same in an efficient manner.
As electrical technology has become more sophisticated, arrangements have been developed wherein the paths of the electrode have been controlled by means of electrical control circuitry coupled with servo motor control. Moreover, mechanical and analog signal processing techniques have, for some time, been employed in controlling EDM arrangements. However, such techniques have been relatively simplistic, and as a result, machining has been carried out in a rather unsophisticated, imprecise and inefficient manner. More specifically, EDM control techniques have been such that only relatively simple types of machining patterns have been able to be carried out. Thus, it has been impossible or at least difficult to achieve sophisticated types of machining patterns.